Gaybutton

Many of you are probably familiar with the Oz bar in Jomtien. The owners have closed the Oz bar and reopened at the beach, under the name Bondi. It's certainly a much easier to get to location. The new Bondi Bar is on the walkway that begins at the 7-Eleven, heading toward the gay beach area. It's just past the 7-Eleven, directly in front of the car park area at which all the motorcycles park. If you are headed towards the gay beach area and walk as far as the TMB exchange booth-ATM, you missed it. Bondi is a strong supporter of Thais-4-Life. A selection of Thais-4-Life books is available there. Food and drink is served, beginning with breakfast. They open for breakfast at 8:00am. Prices are reasonable. You can get a breakfast of two eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee for 90 baht. Drink prices are mostly 90 baht as well. Gin and Tonic - 90 baht. Glass of red wine - 95 baht. Bondi has retained the popular Quiz Night that attracted many to the Oz bar. That is done on the last Sunday of each month. They begin at 9:30pm, although I'd recommend getting there no later than shortly after 9:00pm if you expect to get a good table, especially if you are there with a group. You can play as a team, join a team, or play individually. Each player is expected to donate 100 baht to Thais-4-Life. The team with the most points gets a bottle of whiskey. The team with the least number of points gets a "booby prize." About halfway through the quiz the staff comes around to each table with an offering of finger sandwiches. Those are free. No extra charge to take your fill of finger sandwiches. The quiz is done by handing out to each table a clipboard with several sheets of paper on which to write the quiz answers. Make sure you bring a pen or pencil with you. There are several quiz categories, ten questions each. Your team gets to pick one category that will yield double points. A moderator calls out the questions and your team tries to come up with the answers. Between each category, the answer sheets are collected and scored. The answers and the team that scored the most points are announced before the next category of questions begins. The quiz begins at 9:30pm and it's usually over around 11:30pm. Everybody seems to greatly enjoy the Quiz Night and there are several groups of regulars who show up for it. My group had a wonderful time, except for one thing . . . we lost.

Considering the number of stories published about the police raids at the boy bars, I thought I would never live to see the day when we would start seeing stories published about the police raiding the girl bars, looking for drugs and underage staff, but the following appears in the PATTAYA DAILY NEWS: for photos, see: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000009856 _____ UNDER AGE DANCERS AND DRUG USE UNCOVERED IN PATTAYA GO-GO RAIDS On the evening of 25th July 2009 police carried out raids on go go bars in the Pattaya and Jomtien areas. 4 staff tested positive for drugs and 2 dancing girls were identified as being under the legal age limit . At 11:50 pm Pattaya police investigator Police Lieutenant Apichanun Wattanawarangkul and his team paid an unannounced visit to go-go bars in Soi Sunee Plaza in South Pattaya Moo 10, following complaints from neighbours that the bars were a haven for drugs and full of under aged teenagers. At one male go-go bar, officers carried out a search but no illegal substances were found. However 4 men, who were found to have taken drugs after checks on their urine tested positive, were taken to the police station. Later, acting on a tip off, police visited the Number One go-go bar, located at The Ha-nu-man curve, Moo 12, Jomtien, who they suspected of employing underage staff. In the bar, there were 10 female employees, some of whom were dancing on the stage, while a number of tourists were enjoying their drinks. Officers checked the employee’s ID cards and conducted random urine tests on both the employees and the customers. Two of employees were found to be under 18 but no one tested positive for drugs. Police arrested the owner, Mr.Wanchart Kongmak [48], and charged him for hiring under age staff and staging an obscene dance show.

I always receive an Email notification when I receive a PM. I simply click on the link in the Email and it takes me right to the PM. But after reading it the first time, if I want to read it again I can't find how to get back to the PMs. How do you get there?

You've got your wish. Thread closed. Heat? You guys weren't even lukewarm.

I believe they ended the program not long after the coup. I don't know whether that included people who had already paid for it. What you're looking at is probably surplus maps still left over from when they were in operation.

That's a very good guess. You're right, I don't have to. In you're case I'm simply not going to bother. I'm through responding to you. If you want to continue making a fool of yourself, that's your choice, but you're going to have to play alone.

Oh, of course. Absolutely right . . . Please excuse me for about 15 minutes while I finish having my little laugh if you expect anyone to swallow that one.

Goooood. Keep it up. You don't really think you're capable of goading me into the defensive, do you? But I'll give you fair warning about one thing - your posts are now in the area of personal attacks. The rules about personal attacks apply to everyone, including you, even when those attacks are directed toward me. And we all know what I do when people cross me even slightly, don't we? After all, I'm a paranoid, power mad, control freak, who can't tell the difference between personal attacks and constructive criticism, remember? LMTU supporting me? Horrors! LMTU, please don't support me. KhorTose doesn't like it.

Yes, that's where we met.

Well, I don't claim to know everything about the movies. I was never an Elvis fan and I don't recall actually seeing any of his movies, so you've got me stumped on this one.

I've been silent today through all this, until now. You want to know how I feel about it? YAWN. I've lost count of the number of times I've been subjected to these kinds of attacks. Doesn't bother me a bit. If it did, I would already have left the boards years ago. The idea that I harass people on the basis that they disagree with me is utter nonsense. I don't do that. I don't care very much whether people agree with me or not. When they get subjected to my "wrath" it has nothing to do with whether they disagree. A few around here keep trying to tell me how to be a moderator. Go right ahead and compare me to moderators on other gay Thailand boards. I've been around a lot longer than any of them. Announcement: I'm not going to change my ways, my methods, or the manner by which I phrase my posts. I'm certainly not going to do it just because convincing GT to get rid of me has now become the personal obsession (so far anyway) of two posters. If you like the way I do things, fine. If you don't, that's your problem. As long as GT wishes to keep me on as a moderator, I'm going to do it exactly as I always have. GT can ask me or demand of me to stop being his moderator any time he wants. If he wants me to go, I'll go. If he wants me to stay, I'll stay. But rest assured that either way I'm not going to change a thing about what I do or how I do it, and I'm sure not going to let people put me on the defensive about it. I see no reason why GT needs to defend me either. If I feel a need to defend myself, believe me I'm perfectly capable of handling that for myself. So far, my favorite part of the whole day was finding out that someone thought he could threaten GT into getting rid of me. I find that highly amusing. I can just see this person sitting in front of his computer in a state of absolute rage. And they call me childish. Ok . . . By the way, Oogleman, you and I have met twice.

Mainly because I'm a movie person. I never was much of a music person. I knew a few and guessed the rest.

Of course predicting what the weather will be is next to impossible. You just never know. I've seen some of the most torrential rains in the middle of the dry season and droughts during the rainy season. You have to be prepared for anything. The good news is that even when we do get torrential rains, they usually last less than an hour. An hour after the rains stops you wouldn't even know it had rained at all, except in areas that get more extreme flooding.

The only way I know is to change your phone number and never give out the new one to any businesses. And then you have to pray that the number isn't an old one that someone else no longer has. Either way, sooner or later they'll catch up somehow to your number again. If you have to call one of the businesses, don't call from your mobile phone. As soon as you do, via Caller ID, now they'll have your number. Even if you do get another phone number, I don't know whether that will help. The company, 1-2-Call, DTAC, or whatever obviously has your number. I'm not sure whether they sell telephone number lists or not, but I do know that I quite often get text message and graphic message ads from companies I've never heard of. I don't know where else those companies could have gotten my phone number. I've learned to just live with it. When the ads come in, I simply delete them later without bothering to read any of them. Half of them are in Thai anyhow.

If you would like to watch the full interview, click the following: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/nationvdo/showvdo.php?id=2324&cateid=13

I don't think it matters where the servers are. The servers could be located in another country entirely. What matters is what is posted, what is allowed to stand as a post, whether the post violates Thai law, whether the post can be construed under Thai law as libel or defamation, what actions the board owners and moderators take in response to the post, and whether those actions are taken in a reasonable and timely manner. If legal action is taken, then the Thai authorities are going to go after whoever is readily accessible. In other words, me. Again, I'm the only moderator on this board who is a permanent resident of Thailand and it is quite possible I would be the first person served and/or arrested. While some people seem perfectly willing to have me take that risk, while they would be risk free themselves, what it all boils down to is that is not a risk I am willing to take. Suppose I do start letting people write those kinds of posts. While some are certain I am going way overboard in my position about this and the fact that I am coming on so strongly and belligerently about it, what do they say to me if I do find myself in legal trouble because of those kinds of posts? Sorry?

What took place with Lawrence is none of your business. You are assuming you saw all of his posts and know all the facts. You didn't and you don't. Very sorry, but I am not going to discuss my actions regarding Lawrence or any other posters with you. Regarding your list, he could be Mother Theresa for all I care, but I go by a person's activities on this board and I feel no need to justify my own actions to anyone other than GT. If Lawrence wishes to discuss it with me, he knows how to send PMs and Email and probably knows how to find me if he wants to discuss it personally. And, by the way, he has not been banned from this board. The only people who have ever been banned from this board have been banned by consensus of the moderators, and no one has ever been banned by a unilateral decision by me. Whether or not you like my comments to him, like my avatar, or like my general demeanor is a matter of indifference to me. If you don't like what you see on television, change the station. Same applies here. Once again, no matter what you say or how many criticisms of me you wish to post, I am not going to permit being subjected to a possible libel action. Ok, and on that note I'm all finished discussing this at all. There is nothing more for me to say that I haven't repeatedly said already. Some people say I always insist on having the last word. This time, if you want it, you get to have the last word.

I can't answer any of that because we were never given the reason for it. Even my attorney was unable to get anyone to tell him the reason. The Thai government, or some agency of it, did the blocking.

That is correct and that is what my own Thai attorney told me. I'll go along with KhorTose in that it is unlikely that the board, its owner, or its moderators would be sued or arrested, but 'unlikely' isn't good enough for me, not when my entire future depends on it. If it is so important to some people around here to put down businesses or individuals, then they're going to have to find someplace to do it other than this board. I will also repeat that if anyone thinks his post might be questionable enough that I would delete it, then all he has to do is send me a copy of what he intends to post and ask. If the post won't place me in jeopardy, then I have no problem with it. But if I feel that it could place me in that sort of jeopardy, then I won't allow it.

When it comes to the possibility of me ending up involved in a lawsuit, ending up having the police knocking on my door, or ending up being forced to leave Thailand, you need to understand there is no way in hell I am going to allow that to happen. It is pointless for you to keep arguing with me about it because I will not . . . repeat I will not . . . permit that to happen, especially just because a few people want to put down a business. I meant exactly what I said. Normally I'm a pretty nice guy, or I at least try to be, but I draw the line when I've got somebody trying to get me to place myself in that kind of jeopardy. I do not apologize for what I said. In fact I'll repeat what I said: If you want to write posts that are potentially libelous under Thai law, then either post on a board that allows it or start your own board. You go right ahead and place yourself in jeopardy if you wish, but don't even think about trying to place me in it. As long as I am involved as a moderator on this board it's not going to happen. You're not going to come up with an argument to convince me otherwise, so I suggest you drop it. Quite frankly, I don't give a good goddam whether you think I'm being impolite about it or not. In case you haven't guessed yet, I'm extremely angry at your continuous attempts to get me to permit those kinds of posts. How dare you try to do that to me! What, exactly, are you trying to achieve? GT might as well save his money about going to a Thai attorney. I've already done that. I did that when I woke up one morning and found my own board blocked, and I am not going to allow it whether he finds an attorney who says it's acceptable or not. My own attorney said it isn't, and that's that. I don't know how I can make it any more clear.

Thank you, and I rest my case. Someone out there wants to post something Thailand construes as libelous? Good. Start your own message board. Try it here and your post is gone. Very simple.

I'm semi with you. I don't think anyone would be so foolish as to say there is no corruption in Thailand. I think corruption plays a role in this issue, but I don't think corruption is the only factor. Just how much of it is attributable to corruption is unknown to us, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that it does play a significant part. One reason I get upset over these pedophile arrests is because so much of it occurs in Pattaya, so much of it involves gay pedophiles, and it gives a bad reputation to everyone gay in Thailand, especially Pattaya. The stereotype even occurs among our perceptions of ourselves. It hasn't been all that long since there was a string of posts saying that simply being present in Sunee Plaza means you're a pedophile. That's nonsense, of course, but the fact remains there are members of the gay community who are convinced of it.

Here is Blue Elephant's web site: http://www.blueelephant.com/bangkok/index.html Did you know that Blue Elephant sells some of their products right here in Pattaya? In Carrefour they have a booth right in front of the fresh fish section.

Damn it, GT, I told you not to tell anyone what I said . . .